Authorities Say Couple That Raised $400,000+ For Homeless Man Made Up The Story

With the way that technology is rapidly advancing, we have seen a lot of good come from the ability to connect to one another much easier. With crowdsourcing sites like “Go Fund Me” that are designed to bring people together and attract attention to a cause that is worthy of their donation, we have seen plenty of people who have been able to help one another out and do good for a cause where maybe somebody really needed the money. It’s definitely a good idea, at least in theory.

However, on the other hand, where sites like this exist, just like shelling out a couple of bucks to someone asking for money on the street, you really never get to see how it’s being spent. As of now, there is no final verdict to speak of, however, charges have since been brought about for one case where a couple allegedly raised over $400,000 to help out who they said was a homeless man but later would be accused of keeping it all for themselves. This obviously isn’t just any small sum of money, either. Any sum of money would be unethical to do this with along with being illegal but when you consider the fact that they allegedly kept nearly half a mil for themselves, you can see where the story begins to go off the rails and create a widespread outrage.

The story all began as Johnny Bobbitt Jr., 35, a man that was allegedly homeless, was the main component of the story where he was said to have given 20 of his last dollars to Kate McClure, 28, who says she had run out of gas and was stranded at the time. Now, as the story would follow, Kate and her boyfriend, Mark D’Amico, 39, were so inspired by this act of kindness that they would go along and create a crowdfunding effort online.

The story started to fall apart as claims would eventually come out that the couple hadn’t given all of the money to the man as they soared past their $10,000 goal but instead were keeping at least a portion of it for themselves when Bobbitt Jr. would sue them. Later speculation would have all three of them being a part of one scheme to deceive people into giving them money so that they could live a lifestyle that they wouldn’t previously have been able to afford.

According to NBC, all three were charged with charged with “second-degree theft by deception and conspiracy to commit theft by deception, authorities said. If found guilty, they could serve up to five to 10 years in prison.”

Hopefully, all of this is just one giant misunderstanding, but if what is alleged is actually true, you can’t help but shake your head. It doesn’t get much lower than something like this and all that can be said about someone behind such a scheme is that they are doing all that they can to damage trust between people who are out there trying to do good and help one another.

On a side note, if this is true, imagine being Bobbitt, the one to try and sue over money that was allegedly acquired by such illegal means in the first place!